Apple is suing a former worker for allegedly stealing confidential Imaginative and prescient Professional headset analysis earlier than leaving to affix Snap’s product design group. Within the criticism filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court docket on June twenty fourth, Apple accuses Di Liu of downloading hundreds of paperwork containing proprietary data from Apple’s inside techniques and saving them to his private cloud storage account in his ultimate days as a senior design engineer for the Imaginative and prescient Professional.
In accordance with the lawsuit, Liu falsely claimed he was quitting his job for well being causes and didn’t disclose that he had a brand new job lined up as a product design engineer for Snap. This prevented Apple from instantly revoking Liu’s entry to inside techniques, a regular protocol activated by the corporate upon discover that staff are becoming a member of a competitor. Apple alleges that this allowed Liu to repeat a “large quantity” of proprietary data that he might later entry after being locked out of Apple’s community.
“Mr. Liu’s actions had been deliberate; logs on his Apple-issued work laptop computer present that Mr. Liu individually chosen the folders he copied and, in some circumstances, renamed and reorganized them after shifting them to his private cloud storage account,” Apple mentioned within the criticism. “Additional, Mr. Liu took actions to hide motion of the information, deliberately deleting information from his Apple-issued work laptop computer.”
Apple says it’s unable to find out precisely what was downloaded by Liu, however argues the overlap between the data Liu took with Snap’s AR Spectacles merchandise “means that Mr. Liu intends to make use of Apple’s Proprietary Info at Snap.” In accordance with the criticism, Apple is pursuing unspecified monetary damages from Liu for breaching contractual obligations and requesting that Liu be compelled to return the stolen paperwork.
Apple has not named Snap as a defendant within the swimsuit. Snap mentioned in a press release to SiliconValley that it had reviewed Apple’s claims, and had “no cause to imagine they’re associated to this particular person’s employment or conduct at Snap.”
